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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF. CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 

MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


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The 

Djyckrnan   Houfe 

Park   Eitid   M  u fe  u  m . 

•New  York  Cil^^  •    ic)i6 


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THE  DYCKMAN  HOUSE 
PARK  AND  MUSEUM 


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THE   DYCKMAN 
-       HOUSE 


BUILT  ABOUT   I  783 

RESTORED  AND  PRESENTED  TO 

THE  CITY  OF|NEW  YORK  IN 

MCMX  VI 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/dyckmanliousebuilOOdeanricli 


.37 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I — Introduction.    The  Dyckman  House     .     7 

II — The  Interest  of  Its  Locality      .     .     .15 

III — The  Builder  of  the  House:   His  Fam- 
ily   20 

IV — The  House  and  Its  Contents.     ...  31 

V — Acknowledgments  ■ 43 


H 


I 

INTRODUCTION 
THE   DYCKMAN   HOUSE 

NEW  YORK  has  little  time  to  think  of  bygones. 
Its  life  hurries  along  its  few  long  avenues  and 
runs  thickly  in  its  many  cross  streets  without 
stopping  in  front  of  houses  which  are  old,  even  when 
historical.  There  is,  perhaps,  not  a  city  in  the  world 
one-tenth  of  its  size  which  has  less  average  interest 
in  its  own  past.  It  grows  quickly,  takes  its  popula- 
tion from  everywhere,  and  tears  down  its  buildings 
and  rebuilds  them  at  a  furious  rate.  In  its  progress 
it  spares  few  vestiges  of  olden  times.  For  one  thing, 
it  cannot  afford  to  preserve  its  land  for  ''senti- 
mental reasons;"  it  has  already  too  little  space  for 
its  daily  need;  its  mainland  is  an  island,  and  rather 
than  spread  out  broadly  it  is  quite  content  to  grow 
up  in  the  air.  So  quickly,  indeed,  does  the  memory 
of  its  old  buildings  pass  away  that  little  would  re- 
main to  our  knowledge  of  them,  even  of  a  few  gener- 
ations ago,  had  not  a  few  exceptional  people  set 
themselves  at  that  time  to  picture  them  in  their 
surroundings  and  to  leave  these  records  to  their  de- 
scendants. How  different,  indeed,  would  be  our  idea 
of  old  New  York  had  not  a  member  of  our  City 
Common   Council,   at   no   little   cost   and   ridicule, 

7 


8  THE      DYCKMAN      HOUSE 

persuaded  his  fellow  members  to  publish  pictures  of 
early  landmarks  in  their  annual  reports!  And  to- 
day, as  we  thumb  the  pages  of  Valentine  s  Manual, 
how  few  of  the  buildings  there  shown  have  been 
left  behind ! 

For  buildings  in  New  York  which  visibly  antedate 
the  year  1800  one  may  long  seek  in  vain.  Even  in 
the  uppewnost  part  of  the  island  there  exists  hardly 
a  trace  of  the  simpler  life  of  our  people.  The  old 
and  well-set  farms  which  spread  over  Yorkville, 
Manhattanville,  Bloomingdale,  Carmansville  and 
Harlem  have  passed  quite  out  of  our  memory  and 
their  old  buildings  have  fallen,  one  by  one,  to  be  re- 
placed by  rows  of  private  dwellings  of  brick  or 
brown-stone,  or  tall  apartments  of  varied  colors. 
To-day  there  remains  on  Manhattan  Island  but  one 
real  eighteenth-century  farmhouse.  Happily,  how- 
ever, for  posterity,  this  is  an  excellent  specimen  of 
its  kind  (Frontispiece).  It  was  built  about  1783 
but  appears  of  earlier  date,  having  features  which 
suggest  constructions  of  1 750-1 760.  It  has  the 
added  interest  of  having  been  little  changed  since 
it  was  built.  It  had  passed  out  of  the  hands  of  its 
original  owners  less  than  fifty  years  ago,  and  its 
various  later  tenants,  feeling  that  the  building  would 
sooner  or  later  be  "pulled  down,"  made  no  serious 
attempt  to  modernize  it.  But  when  at  last  the 
time  came  to  demolish  it,  for  apartment  houses  were 
growing  up  nearby — and  its  last  owner  could  not  be 
expected  to  preserve  its  valuable  site  for  reasons  his- 
torical— the  old  house,  neglected  and  forlorn,  made 
its  appeal  to  the  sentiment  of  the  community — 
should  it  go  or  should  it  in  some  way  be  preserved, 
to  remain  as  the  last  of  its  kind,  to  leave  to  sue- 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM  9 

ceeding  generations  at  least  a  memory  of  their  fore- 
bears and  of  early  times?  (Fig.  I.)  One  of  the  first 
to  make  a  serious  effort  to  preserve  the  old  house 
was  the  former  Park  Commissioner,  Hon.  Charles  B. 
Stover,  who  drew  up  a  report  explaining  its  interest 
and  suggesting  ways  and  means  for  saving  it.    Prior 


FIG.     I 

DYCKMAN    HOUSE.      SOUTHEAST  CORNER,  SEEN    FROM  THE  CORNER 

OF    BROADWAY    AND    2O4TH    STREET 

to  this,  several  patriotic  societies  discussed  the  pro- 
ject hopefully;  and  shortly  afterward  the  Society  of 
the  Daughters  of  the  Revolution,  headed  by  Mrs. 
Everett  M.  Ray  nor,  went  so  far  as  to  raise  the  funds 
necessary  to  move  the  building  into  the  neighboring 
Isham  Park.  Thereupon  the  owners  of  the  house, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  H.  Judge,  came  forward  and 


10  THE      DYCKMAN      HOUSE 

offered  to  present  the  building  to  the  City  in  case  a 
suitable  place  for  it  could  be  found.  Further  ex- 
amination showed,  however,  that  the  old  house  could 
not  be  placed  in  I  sham  Park — there  was  no  adequate 
site  for  it  there.  On  the  other  hand,  a  site  might 
have  been  had  on  another  part  of  the  Isham  Estate; 
for  Mrs.  Henry  Osborn  Taylor  (who  was  Miss  Julia 
Isham,  and  who  had  presented  the  Park  to  the  City), 
had  intimated,  very  generously,  that  she  was  inter- 
ested in  the  fate  of  the  old  house  and  would  consider 
with  her  family  ways  and  means  of  giving  it  a  home. 
But  there  still  remained  the  serious  question  whether 
the  house  could  be  moved  without  danger  of  destroy- 
ing it.  It  seemed,  too,  a  pity  to  tear  the  old  house 
from  the  land  where  it  had  so  long  stood.  At  this 
point  two  of  the  descendants  of  the  original  builder, 
Mrs.  Bashford  Dean  (formerly  Mary  Alice  Dyckman) 
and  Mrs.  Alexander  McMillan  Welch  (formerly 
Fannie  Fredericka  Dyckman),  expressed  the  wish  to 
purchase  the  property,  and,  having  restored  house  and 
grounds  to  their  original  condition,  to  present  them 
to  the  City.  This  they  offered  to  do  in  memory  of 
their  father,  Isaac  Michael  Dyckman,  who  as  a  boy 
had  lived  in  the  house,  and  their  mother,  Fannie 
Blackwell  (Brown)  Dyckman,  whose  grandmother, 
Jemima  Dyckman  was  married  there.  This  offer  was 
formally  accepted  by  the  City  (November  12,  191 5), 
at  the  recommendation  of  the  present  Park  Com- 
missioner, Hon.  Cabot  Ward,  and  the  property  be- 
came known  as  **the  Dyckman  House  Park  and 
Museum,"  for  it  was  part  of  the  plan  of  the  donors 
to  return  to  the  house  the  old  furniture  and  heir- 
looms of  their  forefathers.  The  contents  of  the 
Museum  they  explained,  however,  are  not  given  to 


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12  THE      DYCKMAN      HOUSE 

the  City,  but  are  to   remain  for  the  present  as  a 
loan. 

The  work  of  putting  the  house  in  order  was  imme- 
diately begun.  Mr.  Welch  undertook  the  restora- 
tion of  the  house  and  grounds,  and  Mr.  Dean  planned 
the  arrangement  of  the  Museum.  Happily,  the 
changes  which  had  befallen  the  original  house  were 
known;  early  pictures  of  it  exist,  one  of  them  as 
early  as  1835  (Fig.  2),  and  Mr.  Welch,  as  the  archi- 
tect, had  no  difficulty  in  determining  what  necessary 
alterations  should  be  made  to  bring  the  house  back 
to  its  condition  prior  to  the  year  1800.  The  most 
important  steps  were  to  remove  from  the  main  con- 
struction a  small  north  wing  which  was  added  about 
1830,  and  to  reconstruct  the  back  porch,  destroyed 
about  1880,  the  foundation  stones  for  which  still 
existed.  Then,  too,  the  smoke-house  was  to  be  re- 
placed after  a  picture  of  the  original  one,  a  well- 
curb  reproduced,  and  the  roof  reshingled.  With 
these  there  were  numerous  small  but  troublesome 
repairs — rotted  beams  were  to  be  mended,  requiring 
much  time  and  labor  in  the  process,  especially  since 
it  was  decided  that  only  hand-hewn  timbers  of 
similar  age  should  be  used  in  repairs.  Within  the 
house  the  only  serious  changes  were  in  the  wood- 
work of  the  hall  and  dining-room,  which  had  been 
''modernized"  about  1850.  Here,  however,  it  was 
only  necessary  to  copy  the  older  woodwork  found 
either  under  the  newer  pieces,  or  in  some  other  part 
of  the  house,  and  to  obtain  the  lacking  hinges,  locks, 
latches,  hand-made  nails,  etc.,  from  other  houses  of 
similar  date.  The  double,  or  ''Dutch,''  doors,  for- 
tunately, were  original,  save  in  the  summer  kitchen. 
It  was  then  found  necessary  to  repaint  all  original 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM  I3 

exterior  woodwork,  which  was  in  bad  condition,  both 
to  preserve  it  and  to  make  it  appear  in  its  original 
state.  And  around  the  place  a  stone  wall  was  built, 
whose  details  were  designed  to  correspond  with  the 
walls  of  the  house. 

In  arranging  the  interior  of  the  house  the  effort 
was  made  to  restore  the  rooms  to  their  primitive 
condition.  With  this  in  view  each  room  was  studied 
carefully;  thus,  the  original  colors  of  walls  and  wood- 
work were  discovered  after  removing  later  coats  of 
paint,  and  the  old  furniture  was  put  back,  in  so  far 
as  possible,  into  its  original  position. 

The  garden  was  given  its  brick  paths  very  much 
on  the  old  lines,  and  a  number  of  the  present  trees 
and  shrubs  replace  similar  ones  shown  in  early  pic- 
tures. We  note,  by  the  way,  that  the  lilac  bushes 
at  the  south  end  of  the  house  remain  unchanged. 
The  boxwood  is  approximately  in  its  primitive  posi- 
tion. And  the  old-fashioned  flowers  are  not  unlike 
those  which  flowered  in  similar  beds  over  a  century 
ago.  Among  the  old-fashioned  plants  seen  about 
the  garden  are  hollyhocks,  peonies,  day  lilies,  roses 
of  Sharon,  rockets,  clove  pinks,  and  old-time  roses. 
A  few  apple  trees  have  been  planted  nearby  to  re- 
mind one  of  the  great  orchards  which  formerly  sur- 
rounded the  place,  and,  for  reasons  sentimental,  a 
cherry  tree  has  been  grafted  from  the  last  known  of 
the  Dyckman  cherries,  which  still  stands  in  the  field 
opposite  the  ancient  house.  This  cherry  repre- 
sented an  especial  strain  widely  known  in  the  early 
nineteenth  century.  According  to  family  tradition, 
States  Morris  Dyckman,  when  travelling  abroad, 
sent  to  his  cousin.  Jacobus  Dyckman,  then  the  owner 
of  the  house,  a  number  of  saplings  of  a  German 


14  THE     DYCKMAN      HOUSE 

cherry  then  in  vogue,  the  black  Tartarean;  one  of 
these  in  the  new  environment  produced  a  sport  which 
soon  became  known  as  the  Dyckman  cherry,  having 
fruit  of  deHcate  flavor  and  of  great  size.  The  race, 
unhappily,  has  long  since  run  out.  The  most  char- 
acteristic feature  of  the  garden  is  easily  the  ancient 
boxwood  which  was  generously  given  to  the  little 
park  by  Mr.  Edmund  D.  Randolph,  from  his  estate 
'*  Brookwood,"  at  Mount  St.  Vincent,  where  it  had 
flourished  for  nearly  a  century. 


FIG.    3 
INTERIOR    OF    PARLOR 


II 

THE   INTEREST  OF   ITS  LOCALITY 


"^HE  region  of  the  old  house  is  of  considerable 
antiquarian  interest.  Near  its  site  was  in 
earliest  days  a  large  Indian  village.  Even 
to-day  Indian  relics  ''turn  up''  not  infrequently. 
The  Creek,  which  formed  a  loop  a  few  hundred  yards 
north  of  the  house,  was  a  favorite  fishing  ground, 
famous,  by  the  way,  for  striped  bass,  and  in  it  were 
natural  oyster-beds  of  great  fertility.  Shell-heaps 
marking  camp  sites  are  abundant,  and  in  them  have 
been  found  arrow  points,  sinkers  for  fish-nets,  and 
the  various  odds  and  ends  of  aboriginal  life.  Cold 
Spring,  which  a  few  rods  farther  on  bubbled  up  in 
great  volume  under  the  lee  of  ''Cock  Hill,"  was  fam- 
ous in  Indian  and  Colonial  times.  Around  the  old 
house  Indians  camped,  and  from  the  shell  beds  and 
fire  pits  in  the  neighborhood  many  pieces  of  pottery 
have  been  obtained,  some  of  which,  of  large  size  and 
extraordinary  preservation,  are  exhibited  in  the 
American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  The  In- 
dians remained  in  this  neighborhood  until  well  into 
the  nineteenth  century.  The  last  of  their  race  lived 
near  the  west  end  of  the  "cutting"  for  the  ship 
canal  as  late  as  1835.  Their  stock,  however,  as  on 
Long  Island  and  elsewhere,  had  changed,  having  in- 
termarried with  negro  slaves;  and  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  in  the  neighboring  Indian  graveyards,  where 

15 


l6  THE     DYCKMAN      HOUSE 

burials  were  made  in  the  characteristic  primitive 
fashion— the  body  bent  and  lying  on  its  side  on 
ashes  and  oyster  shells,  sometimes  with  a  dog  placed 
nearby — there  are  also  found  negro  skeletons  with 
which  appear  coffin  nails  and  buttons.  Quite  close 
to  the  old  house  there  were  two  Indian  cemeteries, 
one  east  of  the  house  and  one  almost  south — the 
latter  stilj  used  in  the  memor}^  of  Mr.  Isaac  Michael 
Dyckman  as  the  burial-ground  for  negro  servants. 
Of  these  there  were  many  on  the  farm,  some  of  them 
the  descendants  of  slaves,  most  of  them  in  part  of 
Indian  stock. 

During  the  Revolution  the  region  of  Kingsbridge 
probably  witnessed  more  of  the  actual  doings  of  war 
than  any  other  part  of  the  revolted  Colonies.  For 
six  years  or  more  it  sheltered  armies  whose  goings 
and  comings  were  every-day  matters.  Early  in  the 
war  it  was  occupied  by  the  Continental  Army,  prob- 
ably as  many  as  ten  thousand  troops,  after  the 
affair  of  Harlem  Heights.  It  was  evacuated  just  be- 
fore the  battle  of  White  Plains  and  the  local  bridges 
(including  a  bridge  of  boats)  were  destroyed,  though 
the  Americans  still  held  Fort  Washington,  Cock  Hill 
Fort  (Inwood  Hill),  and  Fort  Independence  on  Kings- 
bridge  Heights,  the  last  two  of  these  to  be  aban- 
doned the  day  after  White  Plains  (/.  e.,  October  29, 
1776),  the  first  to  be  captured  less  than  a  month 
later.  At  this  particular  time  the  Dyckman  farm 
swarmed  with  the  enemy's  troops.  General  Knyp- 
hausen  and  his  Hessians  advanced  to  attack  the  fort 
from  Kingsbridge  by  the  way  of  the  ''gorge,"  which 
is  not  far  from  the  site  of  the  present  Broadway,  be- 
ginning near  Dyckman  Street.  After  the  fall  of 
Fort  Washington,  when  some  twenty-three  hundred 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM  I7 

American  troops  were  captured,  the  Kingsbridge  re- 
gion became  for  seven  years  the  actual  outer  defense 
of  the  British  holding  New  York.  And  we  learn 
much  of  the  happenings  there  during,  later  years 
through  the  serious  memoirs  (published  1798)  of  the 
American  General  Heath,  and  through  the  gossipy 
diary  of  a  German  soldier  of  fortune,  von  Krafft  by 
name  (published  1882,  in  Collections  New  York  His- 
torical Society),  who  gives,  by  the  way,  a  topo- 
graphical sketch  of  this  region  taken  from  the  ledge 
of  Laurel  Hill  (Fort  George).  And  many  details  of 
this  long  occupation  of  the  British  here  have  lately 
been  published  by  Mr.  Reginald  Pelham  Bolton 
("Relics  of  the  Revolution,"  1916).  Thus  we  know 
where  large  camps  were  located,  American,  Hessian, 
Hanoverian,  Highlander,  Loyalist,  and  British  Reg- 
ular. Especially  interesting  is  the  information  which 
has  been  discovered  regarding  the  large  camp  or 
cantonment  which  was  sheltered  by  the  hillside  a 
few  hundred  feet  west  of  the  Dyckman  house,  where 
log  cabins  were  built,  perhaps  several  hundred  in 
number.  Here  Mr.  Bolton  and  his  associates, 
Messrs.  Calver,  Hall,  Dunsmore,  Thurston,  and 
Barck,  have  labored  for  months,  even  years,  digging 
up  the  ancient  works  and  studying  with  antiquarian 
devotion  the  relics  which  were  unearthed.  In  this 
connection  we  record  gratefully  Mr.  Bolton's  labor 
of  love  in  supervising  for  us  the  reconstruction  of  an 
officer's  hut,  which  will  long  remain  as  an  interesting 
relic  of  the  Revolution  in  the  little  Dyckman  Park. 
This  hut  is  composed  of  materials  (excepting  wooden 
parts)  taken  from  an  actual  hut  in  the  neighboring 
hillside,  and  each  stone  is  replaced  in  almost  exact 
relation  to  its  neighbors  (Figs.  4  and  5). 


i8 


THE     DYCKMAN      HOUSE 


The  close  of  the  Revolution  saw  many  changes  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Kingsbridge.  The  camps. were 
swept  away,  the  huts  were  filled  in  or  burned,  the 
timber  in  part  carried  away  for  use  in  the  upbuilding 
of  ruined  farmhouses,  outbuildings  and  fences.  New 
roads  were  established,   notably    Broadway,   which 


FIG.  4 

MR.    BOLTON    AND     HIS     FRIENDS    DIGGING    OUT    THE    STONE- 
WORK OF  THE  REVOLUTIONARY  HUT  IN  THE  HILLSIDE 
WEST   OF   THE    DYCKMAN    HOUSE 

arose  during  the  war  as  a  short  cut  from  the  forts 
below  to  the  northern  end  of  the  island.  And  the 
period  of  ''reconstruction"  saw  new  houses  estab- 
lished near  it,  like  the  present  Dyckman  house,  the 
planting  of  new  farm  land,  and  the  blossoming  out 
of  new  orchards — the  older  ones  having  been  cut 
down  to  form  a  barricade  between  the  two  defenses 
to  the  south.  Fort  George  and  Fort  Tryon.  There 
was  then  in  the  air  everywhere  a  feeling  of  confidence 
and  of  approaching  national  prosperity.  In  a  letter 
of  States  Morris  Dyckman,  dated  1789,  to  a  friend 
in  England,  he  notes  the  'change  which  has  taken 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM  I9 

place  in  the  disposition  of  the  people — prosperity  is 
at  hand — and  the  change  is  decidedly  for  the  better 
— they  already  show  the  effects  of  a  good  and  per- 
manent government/  Commerce  began  to  flourish. 
Stages  multiplied,  and  many  private  coaches  and 
equestrians  passed  in  front  of  the  present  house,  and 
not  a  few  stopped  there  for  a  chat  with  Mr.  Jacobus 
Dyckman,  who  was  widely  known.  The  road  was 
travelled  by  such  personages  as  Washington,  Hamil- 
ton, Schuyler,  Lafayette,  Chancellor  Livingston, 
Burr,  and  Clinton.  From  that  time  until  within  a 
relatively  few  years  the  region  of  the  old  house  has 
changed  but  little.  As  late  as  1896  the  quail  were 
calling  in  Mr.  Isaac  Michael  Dyckman's  fields  (near 
the  present  car  shed  of  218th  Street) — just  as  they 
had  near  the  same  place  when  the  last  wild  deer  were 
shot  a  century  and  a  half  earlier. 


FIG.    5 
TYPE  OF  LOG  HUT   USED    BY  BRITISH  SOLDIERS  DURING  THE  REVO- 
LUTION  (now  RESTORED  IN  GARDEN  OF  DYCKMAN  HOUSE) 


CONCERNING  THE   BUILDER  OF  THE 
HOUSE  AND  HIS   FAMILY 

WILLIAM  DYCKMAN,  who  built  the 
present  house,  was  a  grandson  of  Jan 
Dyckman,  who  came  to  New  Amster- 
dam from  Bentheim,  Westphalia,  toward  the  close 
of  the  Dutch  occupation  of  New  York  (1660),  set- 
tled in  Harlem,  and  became  one  of  the  leading  men 
of  the  new  community.  He  is  mentioned  in  the 
troubles  with  the  Indians,  when  he  was  corporal  of 
his  company,  and  he  is  often  referred  to  in  the  sub- 
sequent development  of  the  uppermost  part  of  Man- 
hattan Island.  With  his  associate,  Jan  Nagel,  he 
was  awarded  a  part  of  the  present  Dyckman  tract 
about  1677,  a  portion  of  which  land  it  is  interesting 
to  note  remained  in  the  hands  of  his  descendants  up 
to  the  year  19 16,  nearly  two  hundred  and  forty 
years  later,  when  Mrs.  Dean  and  Mrs.  Welch  ex- 
changed two  of  the  original  lots  for  the  adjacent  two 
northern  lots  of  the  present  little  park.  Jan  Dyck- 
man, it  appeared,  was  an  unusually  energetic  and 
far-sighted  person.  He  it  was  who  devised  a  means 
of  inducing  tenants  to  develop  his  land  by  offering 
leases  of  long  standing  on  practically  nominal  terms. 

One  of  them  gave  his  tenant  the  use  of  valuable 

20 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM  21 

property  for  seven  years  for  a  rental  of  a  hen  a 
year.  It  was,  moreover,  his  plan  to  select  particu- 
lar pieces  of  property  of  great  fertility,  insuring 
profitable  development,  and  his  success — and  he  was 
notably  successful  in  his  day — was  due  in  no  little 
measure  to  this  kind  of  business  judgment.  It  may 
be  noted  that  his  talent  in  this  direction  was  heredi- 
tary. Each  generation  of  Dyckmans  added  desir- 
able land  to  the  ancient  farm.  The  family,  in  fact, 
early  became  conspicuous  as  investors  in  real  estate, 
until  at  last  their  holdings  stretched  from  the  top 
of  Fort  George  throughout  the  "  Dyckman  Tract," 
northward  beyond  230th  Street,  eastward  to  the 
Harlem  River,  and  westward  to  Broadway,  in  part 
to  Spuyten  Duyvil  Creek  and  Tibbit's  Brook.* 

It  became  a  family  tradition  that  the  Kingsbridge 
lands  should  be  held  in  single  hands  and  not  sub- 
divided among  many  children.  The  property  was 
never  entailed,  still  there  was  the  understanding 
that  the  member  of  the  younger  generation  who  best 
exhibited  the  family  trait  should  be  the  holder  of  the 
family  estate,  and  be  looked  upon  as  the  head  of  the 
family.  The  remaining  children  received  their 
shares  in  money  which  ultimately  came  from  the 
profits  of  the  paternal  farm. 

Thus  William  Dyckman,  mentioned  above,  was 
himself  a  third  son  when  he  inherited  the  estate  from 
his  father  in  1773;  his  home  was  then  near  the  Har- 

*  At  one  time  (1868)  their  farm  included  about  400  acres, 
which  is  one  of  the  largest  in  the  history  of  Manhattan  Island. 
We  learn  through  the  kindness  of  Judge  James  P.  Davenport 
that  its  only  rivals  were  the  early  farms  of  Petrus  Stuyvesant 
(1805),  James  de  Lancey  (1785),  and  Teunis  Eidesse  Van  Huyse 
(1720). 


22  THE     DYCKMAN      HOUSE 

lem  River,  on  the  north  side  of  210th  Street,  about 
350  feet  east  of  Ninth  Avenue  and  near  the  old 
Century  House,  which  was  the  early  home  of  his 
cousins,  the  Nagels.  This  house  we  believe  he 
built  at  the  time  of  his  marriage;  his  father's  and 
grandfather's  house,  which  was  probably  a  larger 
and  better  one,  was  south  and  west  of  it  (2o8-209th 
Streets,  between  Ninth  and  Tenth  Avenues).  But 
he  did  not  long  enjoy  this  family  homestead.  The 
Revolution  came  and  Kingsbridge,  as  the  head- 
quarters of  an  army,  was  no  longer  a  place  of  safety 
for  his  family,  especially  when  his  sympathies  were 
with  the  Americans.  So  his  home  was  abandoned 
and  for  the  remainder  of  the  war  he  lived  with  his 
cousins  near  Peekskill.  He  was  then  beyond  the 
military  age,  and  he  appears  to  have  taken  no  active 
part  in  the  war.  But  four  of  his  sons  were  soldiers, 
and  of  these,  two  were  given  the  rank  of  lieutenant 
and  were  chosen  to  serve  among  the  famous  West- 
chester County  Guides.  They  are  mentioned  by 
General  Heath  in  his  memoirs  as  experts  in  this 
dangerous  service.  One  of  them,  Michael  Dyckman, 
learning  the  countersign  of  the  Loyalists'  camp  in 
Fordham  (just  below  the  present  buildings  of  New 
York  University,  and  in  sight  of  the  old  house — be- 
fore the  apartment  houses  appeared),  led  his  party 
right  into  Emerich's  cantonment  and  killed  or 
captured  forty  refugees.  Another  time,  and  in  the 
same  region,  his  brother,  Abraham  Dyckman,  fol- 
lowed by  thirteen  volunteer  horsemen,  took  five 
prisoners  of  de  Lancey's  corps,  and  on  their  return, 
when  attacked  by  the  enemy's  cavalr3^  "faced 
about,  charged  vigorously,  took  one  man  prisoner 
with  his  horse  and  put  the  rest  to  flight."     Abraham 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM  23 

it  was,  too,  who  penetrated  the  Tory  camp  and  took 
Captain  Ogden  prisoner  in  his  quarters,  while  the 
British  sentry  was  pacing  nearby  on  Farmer's 
Bridge.  General  Heath  goes  out  of  his  way  to  de- 
scribe Mr.  Dyckman  as  a  "brave  and  active  man." 
His  next  expedition  was  fatal,  however,  for  he  was 
wounded  in  an  attack  on  the  headquarters  of  Colonel 
de  Lancey,  whom  he  hoped  to  bring  back  a  prisoner. 
The  wounded  guide  was  taken  to  Yorktown  (near 
Peekskill),  where  he  died  several  days  later,  prob- 
ably with  his  father  by  his  side.  He  was  given  a 
military  funeral,  at  which  General  Washington  was 
present. 

When  William  Dyckman  returned  to  Kingsbridge 
he  found  his  old  house  burned  to  the  ground — a 
costly  compliment  which  the  British  paid  the  family 
for  their  services  in  the  American  cause.  Then,  too, 
the  farm  was  a  ruin  in  every  sense — the  fields  were 
bare,  orchards  were  cut  down,  and  the  last  of  the 
stock  destroyed.  Nevertheless  the  work  of  re- 
habilitation was  immediately  begun.  Timbers  were 
dragged  from  whatever  of  the  old  buildings  still 
remained  in  the  neighborhood  to  the  site  of  the 
present  house.  Cut  stone,  too,  appears  to  have  been 
brought  from  the  earlier  sites.  It  is  more  than  pos- 
sible that  the  newer  house  is  not  widely  different  in 
plan  from  the  earlier  homestead.  William  Dyck- 
man did  not  live  to  see  the  complete  restoration  of 
his  farm.  He  died  in  1787,  probably  in  the  little 
room  in  which  the  Pelham  Bolton  collection  is  now 
arranged.  An  interesting  relic  of  him  is  his  Bible 
(Fig.  6),  which  is  shown  in  the  back  hall-room  with 
other  mementoes  of  the  family,  its  records  begin 
with  his  birth  in  1725,  though  from  its  early  date  of 


24 


THE      DYCKMAN      HOUSE 


publication  (1702)  it  may  have  belonged  to  Jan 
Dyckman  (died  171 5),  for  it  is  possible  that  a  page 
containing  earlier  records  was  lost.  In  itself  the 
book  is  an  excellent  example  of  the  Dutch  Bible  of 
its  day,  with  wooden  binding  encased  in  pigskin, 
heavy  brass  mounts  and  numerous  illustrations  in 


FIG.    6 

DUTCH  BIBLE  OF  WILLIAM  DYCKMAN.       PUBLISHED  IN   DORDRECHT, 
1702,    CONTAINING    FAMILY    RECORDS 


copperplate.  With  its  records  of  William  Dyckman 
are  those  of  his  wife,  Mary  Turner,  as  the  Bible 
spells  it — for  by  that  time  the  ancient  spelling  of 
her  name,  ''de  Tourneur,"  was  overlooked.  She  was 
a  granddaughter  of  Daniel  de  Tourneur,  who  fled 
from  a  little  town  in  Picardy,  about  1652,  during 
Huguenot  troubles.  He  was  a  prosperous  burgher 
of  New  Harlem,  becoming  sheriff,  magistrate  and 
delegate  to  the  general  assembly.  He  was  a  man  of 
high  spirit,  losing  his  temper  magnificently,  the  old 
records  say,  when  reminded  that  the  proximate  cause 
of  his  emigration  to  America  had  been  a  homicide! 
It  is  known  that  Mr.  de  Tourneur,  when  attending 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM  25 

the  funeral  of  a  friend,  a  Huguenot,  in  his  native 
town  had  denied  the  king's  command  to  stop  the 
Protestant  service,  and  when  arrested  by  the  officer 
of  the  guard  had  lost  his  temper,  drawn  his  rapier, 
killed  the  officer  and  put  the  soldiers  to  flight.  His 
granddaughter  survived  her  husband  by  many 
years,  dying  in  the  old  house  in  1802. 

William  Dyckman's  father  was  Jacob  Dyckman 
(1692- 1 77 3),  well  known  in  his  day  for  his  keen  in- 
terest in  agriculture.  He  sought  new  seeds  and  ex- 
perimented with  them,  and  was  an  early  importer  of 
blooded  stock;  one  of  his  letters  is  extant  (1765), 
written  to  Sir  William  Johnson  on  the  Mohawk, 
dealing  with  farming  matters.  He  was  a  person  of 
considerable  determination;  rather  than  pay  the 
penny  toll  to  the  Philipse  family  for  the  use  of  their 
bridge  over  the  Harlem,  he  is  said  to  have  rallied 
his  friends  and  spent  a  small  fortune  building  a  long 
causeway  and  bridge  which  should  be  free  for  the 
farmers.  This  became  known  as  the  Farmers' 
Bridge,  but  is  always  called  on  old  maps  Dyckman's 
Bridge. 

When  William  Dyckman  died,  in  1787,  the  farm 
passed  to  his  eldest  son.  Jacobus,  who  added  ma- 
terially to  the  family  holdings.  He  died  in  1837, 
and  was  well  remembered  by  his  grandson,  Isaac 
Michael  Dyckman,  from  whom  we  learned  that  he 
was  a  man  of  tall  stature,  stooping  somewhat  in  old 
age,  and  carrying  a  long  cane  painted  in  spiral  bands 
of  green  and  white.  He  had  dark  complexion,  steel- 
gray  hair,  strong  features,  aquiline  nose  and  blue 
eyes.  It  is  a  pity  that  no  portrait  of  him  exists,  for 
he  was  a  man  worthy  of  being  remembered.  As  a 
young  man  he  had  been  a  soldier  of  the  Continental 


26  THE      DYCKMAN      HOUSE 

army;  when  old  he  was  widely  known  for  his  clear 
judgment  and  eflfective  methods — which  caused  him 
to  be  elected  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention of  182 1.  His  copy  of  the  minutes  of  this 
convention  is  preserved,  and  shows  that  he  took 
part  in  almost  every  item  of  business  transacted. 
At  Kingsbridge,  in  his  last  years,  he  became  the 
court  of  last  appeal  in  local  matters.  In  front  of 
his  gate  might  be  seen  the  coaches  of  such  of  his 
neighbors  as  iVlrs.  Aaron  Burr  (Madame  Jumel)  and 
Mrs.  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  called  upon  him 
(let  us  hope  not  at  the  same  time)  for  advice  about 
the  management  of  their  property.  To  his  house 
came  people  whose  interest  was  farming  or  politics, 
and  not  a  few  scholars  in  their  day.  Two  of  his  sons 
were  graduates  of  Columbia  College,  and  their  pre- 
ceptors were  apt  to  visit  them,  especially  Doctor 
David  Hosack,  the  botanist  and  anatomist,  who  took 
an  especial  interest  in  the  career  of  Jacob  Dyckman 
(Columbia,  1810;  medicine,  181 3),  the  elder  of  the 
two,  who  promised  to  become  one  of  the  great 
medical  men  of  the  country.  He  was  appointed 
Health  Commissioner  of  New  York  while  a  very 
young  m.an,  but,  contracting  consumption,  died  in 
his  early  thirties.  Incidentally,  it  was  he,  when 
secretary  of  the  Philosophical  Society,  who  obtained 
the  Benjamin  Franklin  chair  for  his  Alma  Mater, 
which  is  still  used  by  Columbia's  presidents  on  state 
occasions.  A  beautifully  bound  copy  of  Doctor 
Dyckman's  book  (18 14)  on  the  "Pathology  of  the 
Human  Fluids"  is  shown  in  the  present  museum, 
which  was  presented  to  "Mr.  Jacobus  Dyckman 
from  his  affectionate  and  dutiful  son,  the  Author." 
The    doctor's   younger   brother,    James    (Jacobus), 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM  27 

graduated  from  Columbia  in  1811  (A.  M.  181 3), 
salutatorian  of  his  class,  became  a  lawyer,  but  died 
at  the  age  of  twenty-three.  Some  of  his  admirably 
written  speeches  are  preserved,  and  in  the  Museum 
is  shown  a  medal,  ''eloquentiae  premium,"  given  him 
by  the  Peithologian  Society  of  Columbia,  18 10. 

The  property  next  passed  to  two  younger  sons  of 
Jacobus  Dyckman,  Isaac  and  Michael,  to  whom  had 
descended  the  family  skill  in  its  management.  They 
remained  unmarried,  devoted  themselves  to  their 
affairs  and  added  to  their  holdings.  For  one  thing 
fortune  favored  them:  their  great  farm  had  the 
reputation  of  yielding  the  earliest  and  best  varieties 
of  fruits  and  vegetables,  in  a  day,  too,  when  the 
market  could  not  depend  upon  distant  producers. 
Then,  also,  it  was  found  that  the  farm  was  a  con- 
venient stopping-point  for  the  great  herds  of  cattle 
which  were  sent  "by  hoof"  to  the  Bull's  Head 
Market.  This  fact,  in  a  measure,  was  the  cause  of 
the  decline  of  the  Dyckman  House.  For  while  it 
was  found  profitable  to  allow  the  cattle  to  remain 
over  night  on  the  farm,  it  was  also  found  far  from 
pleasant  to  have  them  in  the  neighborhood,  and  to 
keep  an  eye  on  the  herdsmen  themselves,  who,  like 
the  notorious  Daniel  Drew,  would  be  apt  to  make 
themselves  at  home  in  their  house.  Hence  it  was 
that  Isaac  Dyckman  and  his  brother  abandoned 
their  grandfather's  home  and  moved  into  the  ''old 
yellow  house,"  pictured,  by  the  way,  in  Valentine  s 
Manual  of  1861,  which  stood  half  a  mile  away  on 
the  upper  part  of  the  farm,  surrounded  by  splendid 
boxwood,  and  overlooking  a  little  creek  and  a  tide- 
mill,  which  later  became  the  site  of  the  present  ship 
canal.     In    this    house    the    elder    and    surviving 


28 


THE      DYCKMAN      HOUSE 


brother,  Isaac,  died  in  1868.  Isaac  Dyckman  was 
remembered  as  a  man  of  considerable  influence  in 
the  community.  He  was  a  fluent  speaker,  tall, 
good  looking,  and  pleasant  in  manner.  He  was  for 
a  long  time  Alderman  in  a  day  when  this  post  was 
one  of  considerable  honor.     We  are  told  that  when 


FIG.    7 
INTERIOR   OF    DINING-ROOM 


he  passed  by  the  local  schoolhouse,  the  land  for 
which  he  had,  by  the  way,  presented  to  the  City, 
the  children  gathered  in  military  fashion,  the  boys 
on  one  side  of  the  street,  the  little  girls  on  the  other, 
and  saluted  and  curtsied. 

At  the  death  of  Mr.  Dyckman  it  was  found  that 
the  large  estate  was  to  be  divided.  There  were  no 
heirs  bearing  the  name  of  Dyckman,  and  the  property 
was  to  be  sub-divided,  especially  among  a  number  of 
nephews  and  nieces,  one  of  whom  became  the  prin- 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM  29 

cipal  heir.  This  was  James  Frederick  Dyckman 
Smith,  who,  in  memory  of  his  uncles,  in  1868  became 
by  act  of  legislature  Isaac  Michael  Dyckman.  He 
was  the  son  of  Mr.  Dyckman's  sister  Hannah,  who 
had  married  Squire  Caleb  Smith,  of  Yonkers;  he  had 
lived  in  the  homestead  since  1820,  when  as  a  boy  of 
seven  he  had  gone  to  Kingsbridge  to  visit  his  grand- 
father. Jacobus  Dyckman.  It  seems  that  the  boy 
had  the  faculty  of  making  friends,  and  affectionate 
ones,  so  it  was  not  remarkable  that  first  his  grand- 
father and  later  his  uncles  tried  to  keep  him  with 
them  and  wished  to  train  him  to  be  their  successor. 
For  this  meant  a  great  deal  to  them,  both  in  senti- 
ment and  practice,  for  the  estate  required  especial 
care  in  its  up-keep,  and  the  surviving  uncle,  Isaac 
Dyckman,  came  naturally  to  look  to  his  nephew  for 
help  in  all  directions.  This  was  then  the  more 
necessary,  since  at  that  time  the  property  had 
reached  its  greatest  dimensions. 

Mr.  Isaac  Michael  Dyckman  (b.  181 3)  lived  in 
the  old  house  between  1820  and  about  1850;  there- 
after he  moved  with  his  uncles  to  the  yellow  house 
already  noted.  He  married,  in  1867,  his  kinswoman, 
Fannie  Blackwell  Brown,  daughter  of  Benjamin  and 
Hannah  (Odell)  Brown,  of  Yonkers,  and  great- 
granddaughter  of  Jacobus  Dyckman,  and  built  the 
home  still  standing  on  218th  Street,  west  of  Broad- 
way, where  he  lived  the  greater  part  of  the  time 
until  his  death  in  1899.  With  Mrs.  Dyckman  he 
devoted  himself  largely  to  religious  and  charitable 
affairs.  He  was  for  a  long  time  ruling  elder  and 
treasurer  in  the  Mount  Washington  Presbyterian 
Church,  which  still  stands  on  the  corner  of  Dyckman 
Street,  and  he  was  a  constant  attendant  at  the  meet- 


30 


THE      DYCKMAN      HOUSE 


ings  of  the  New  York  Presbytery,  of  which  he  was 
a  member.  He  was  greatly  interested  in  historical 
and  educational  matters,  acting  as  trustee  to  the 
old  Dyckman  Library  and  founding  in  Columbia 
University  a  research  fund  in  memory  of  his  uncles, 
Jacob  and  Jacobus,  Columbia,  1810,  181 1.  Mrs. 
Dyckman  survived  her  husband  fifteen  years,  dying 
in  1914,  and  at  her  death,  leaving  no  male  issue, 
the  family  name  in  the  region  of  Kingsbridge  be- 
came extinct,  after  having  been  identified  with  the 
locality  for  about  two  and  a  half  centuries.  Mrs. 
Dyckman,  it  may  be  mentioned,  shared  her  hus- 
band's interests;  she  gave  generously  to  benevolent 
societies,  missions  and  churches. 


FIG.    8 
SOUTHEAST    BEDROOM 


IV 
THE   DYCKMAN   HOUSE:    DETAILS 

THE  Dyckman  house  stands  on  what  is  now 
the  northwest  corner  of  204th  Street  and 
Broadway.  The  avenue  in  front  of  it  has 
been  lowered  about  fifteen  feet,  leaving  the  house 
on  a  knoll.  Even  in  early  days,  however,  it  was 
situated  on  a  rise  of  land  which  looked  southeastward 
over  the  wide-spread  apple  orchards  towards  the 
Harlem  River  and  Fordham  (where  now  the  New 
York  University  forms  a  landmark);  to  the  south 
rose  the  heights  of  Fort  George  and  Fort  Washington; 
on  the  west  was  the  ridge  of  Inwood,  early  known  as 
Mount  Washington,  and  through  the  notch  at  the 
west  end  of  Dyckman  Street  one  had  a  glimpse  of 
the  Palisades.  In  the  spring  it  overlooked  a  fair 
country,  with  a  foreground  of  green  meadows  and 
browsing  herds,  a  middle  distance  of  flowering 
orchards  of  apple,  peach  and  cherry.  Its  owner 
might  have  long  sat  on  this  wide  front  porch,  settled 
comfortably  in  a  deep  slat-backed  armchair,  soothed 
by  the  hum  of  bees  in  the  blossoms  nearby,  and 
watching  lazily  through  the  rings  of  smoke  from  a 
long-stemmed  pipe  the  post-rider  as  he  passed  the 
thirteenth  milestone,  which  was  nearly  in  front  of 
the  old  house. 

3' 


32  THE      DYCKMAN      HOUSE 

The  house  itself  has  basement,  parlor  floor,  bed- 
room floor  and  attic  (page  6).  It  is  well  built. 
Its  stone  walls  are  twenty  inches  thick,  and  are  con- 
tinued up  to  the  window  ledges  of  the  sleeping-room 
floor;  above  them  heavy,  hand-hewn  white  oak  beams 
covered  with  wide  clapboards  fill  in  the  space  to  the 
peak  of  the  gambrel  roof,  which,  incidentally,  has 
an  exceptionally  graceful  curve. 

The  house  had  two  extensions.  The  one  to  the 
south  contained  the  summer  kitchen  and  will  later 
be  described.  The  one  to  the  north  was  relatively 
new,  dating  about  1830,  built  to  provide  additional 
room  for  servants.     This  has  now  been  removed. 

There  are  two  rare  features  in  the  construction  of 
the  old  house.  It  had  a  front  of  brick  instead  of 
field-stone,  and  it  had  also  a  basement.  The  latter 
was  a  feature  which  possibly  arose  from  the  situation 
of  the  house,  for  it  was  built  against  a  ledge  of  rock, 
which  supports  the  entire  rear  wall,  and  permitted, 
therefore,  an  unusual  depth  below. 

In  the  basement  was  a  winter  kitchen,  having  a 
large  brick  fireplace;  beside  this  room,  at  the  north, 
was  a  roomy  and  dry  cellar,  which  no  doubt  was 
well  provisioned  in  its  day  with  winter  vegetables  and 
pans  of  milk  resting  on  swinging  shelves,  the  sup- 
ports of  which  are  still  preserved.  Into  this  cellar 
one  might  enter  from  without,  from  an  inclined 
passageway,  down  a  couple  of  steps,  and  through 
sloping  cellar  doors,  in  the  ancient  Dutch  fashion. 

The  parlor  floor  is  margined  east  and  west  by 
wide  porches  continued  the  full  length  of  the  house. 
It  has  the  usual  broad  hall  extending  through  the 
middle  of  the  house  from  front  to  back,  opening 
right  and  left  into  the  main  rooms.     Here  stands  a 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM  33 

tall  Dutch  clock.  On  the  right  as  we  enter  the 
front  door  one  looks  into  the  parlor,  at  the  left  into 
the  dining-room,  which  was  just  above  the  winter 
kitchen.  In  front  is  the  narrow  staircase,  margined 
primly  with  a  straight  cherry  rail,  and  below  the 
turn  of  the  stairs  one  sees  through  the  opened  half- 
door  the  trees  on  the  slope  of  Inwood  Ridge.  Be- 
hind the  parlor  and  also  opening  into  the  hall  was  a 
smaller  room,  known  as  Isaac  Dyckman's  room,  and 
across  the  hall,  opening  by  a  doorway  under  the 
staircase,  one  could  descend  to  the  winter  kitchen, 
or  could  enter  through  a  small,  dark  passageway  up 
and  down  three  steps  into  a  small  back  room,  and 
thence  into  the  rear  of  the  dining-room.  This  room 
was  known  as  Grandfather  Dyckman's,  and  here, 
we  believe,  died  William  Dyckman  in  1787. 

The  sleeping-room  floor  includes  five  rooms.  Of 
two  small  bedrooms  at  the  rear  only  one  opens  into 
the  hall — this  is  called  Isaac  Michael  Dyckman's 
room.  The  two  main  rooms  north  and  south  are 
known,  respectively,  as  the  uncles'  room  and  Jacobus 
Dyckman's  room;  into  the  latter  opened  the  second 
rear  room,  which  is  believed  to  have  been  occupied 
by  the  youngest  children.  The  front  of  the  hall  was 
enclosed  as  a  dark,  servant's  or  nurse's  bedroom, 
from  which  passed  curious  low  storage  spaces,  "like 
secret  passageways,"  north  and  south,  formed  by 
the  overhanging  eaves  and  lighted  by  small  bull's- 
eyes  at  either  end  of  the  house.  A  stepladder  leads 
to  the  garret,  in  which  one  may  see  the  hand-hewn 
timber  of  the  old  house  reaching  upward  to  the  gable 
and  roofing  a  space  which  was  invaluable  in  domestic 
economy  of  olden  times.  Here  stood  disused  bed- 
steads, ancient  hide-covered  trunks,  supernumerary 


34  THE     DYCKMAN     HOUSE 

band-boxes,  spinning-wheels  and  the  like.  This  great 
space  was  again  lighted  by  bull's-eyes  at  either  end 
of  the  house. 

The  southern  addition  contains,  as  we  have  said, 
a  summer  kitchen  (Figs.  9  and  10),  and  above  it  was 
a  large  servants'  room.     This  addition,  we  believe, 


FIG.   9 
INTERIOR   OF    SUMMER    KITCHEN,  SHOWING   BAKE   OVENS 

was  really  of  earlier  date  than  the  house  itself,  hav- 
ing probably  been  built  prior  to  the  American  Revo- 
lution. For  we  know  that  the  main  building  was 
erected  in  or  about  1783,  the  year  when  William 
Dyckman  returned  to  his  home  after  the  evacuation 
of  the  city  by  the  British.  His  old  house  had  been 
burned  and  he  probably  lived  in  the  present  addition, 
which  served  earlier  as  a  foreman's  cottage,  or  was 
possibly  part  of  his  first  house,  from  210th  Street. 
This  is  evidenced  by  the  character  of  the  ceiling  of 


PARKANDMUSEUM  35 

its  main  room,  which  shows  open  rafters  with  beaded 
edges,  also  an  early  type  of  fireplace.  Another  rea- 
son for  its  greater  age  is  that  its  north  wall  is  covered 
with  clapboards,  although  it  faced  the  stone  wall  of 
the  main  house,  thus  showing  conclusively  that  the 
stone  wall  must  either  have  been  built  against  the 
clapboards  or  that  the  small  addition  must  sub- 
sequently have  been  moved  up  against  the  house. 
During  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  this 
addition  was  occupied  by  the  cook,  black  Hannah, 
who  had  been  born  on  the  place  as  the  daughter  of 
a  slave  who  was  partly  of  Indian  blood.  Tradition 
describes  her  with  a  bright-colored  headgear,  face 
black  as  ebony,  temper  decidedly  irregular,  and  a 
strong  leaning  toward  a  corncob  pipe.  Her  kitchen, 
with  its  white  floor  strewn  with  sand  in  patterns, 
did  not  open  into  the  house  itself,  but  on  a  porch 
from  which  one  had  also  access  to  the  winter 
kitchen. 

In  arranging  the  interior  of  the  house,  the  effort 
has  been  made  to  preserve  the  appearance  of  each 
room  in  its  original  condition.  The  old  pieces  of 
furniture  taken  from  the  house  when  Isaac  Dyckman 
moved  away  have  been  carefully  collected  and  put 
back,  so  far  as  possible,  in  their  original  position. 
Where  objects  from  the  homestead  were  not  pre- 
served their  place  is  filled  with  similar  pieces  which, 
with  but  few  exceptions,*  were  in  the  possession  of 
other  members  of  the  Dyckman  family  or  of  its 
connections. 

The  house  is  interesting,  therefore,  as  exhibiting 
with  considerable  accuracy  the  indoor  surroundings 
of  a  well-to-do  family  about  the  year  1800.     And 

*We  except  also  kitchen  utensils  in  large  part. 


36  THE      DYCKMAN      HOUSE 

they  are  the  more  interesting  since  the  conditions  of 
those  simpler  days  are  rapidly  fading  from  memory. 
How  many  to-day,  for  example,  even  those  of  us  who 
pride  ourselves  on  our  housekeeping  and  cookery, 
could  go  into  one  of  the  old  kitchens  of  the  present 
house  and  make  use  of  the  apparatus  there?  How 
many  of  us  could  start  a  kitchen  fire  without  the  use 
of  matche^^^ — some  of  us  do  not  know  a  tinder-box 
when  we  see  one,  far  less  the  practical  use  of  flint 
and  steel.  The  art  of  such  primitive  fire-making  is 
well-nigh  forgotten.  Even  such  an  expert  in  Colonial 
matters  as  Alice  Morse  Earle,  who  has  written  de- 
lightfully of  ancient  customs,  confesses  that  she  has 
never  learned  the  trick  of  the  tinder-box,  which 
probably  any  Dyckman  child  of  six  could  have  shown 
her!  How  many  of  us  could  build  a  wood  fire  which 
would  last,  fix  a  back  log,  or  bank  embers  so  they 
would  keep  like  vestal  fire — or  use  convincingly  the 
curious  trammels  or  pot  hooks  for  the  huge  kettles, 
or  skillets,  or  skimmers,  or  waffle-irons,  or  a  Dutch 
oven  or  a  bake  oven?  The  former  oven  is  the  con- 
trivance in  tin  which  stands  in  front  of  the  open 
fireplace  in  the  present  winter  kitchen  to  collect  the 
heat  and  reflect  it  upon  an  object  which  was  slowly 
rotated  on  a  spit,  sometimes  with  the  aid  of  a  trained 
'* turnspit"  dog.  Of  bake  ovens,  we  have  two  ex- 
cellent specimens  in  the  summer  kitchen  (Fig.  9),  so 
large  that  they  appear  on  the  outside  of  the  house, 
projecting  behind  the  chimney  like  buttresses,  and 
indicating  the  size  of  the  farm  and  the  number  of  its 
slaves  and  helpers  to  be  provided  for.  These  were 
by  no  means  as  convenient  in  use  as  the  modern 
kitchen  oven;  they  required  special  fuel,  which  was 
laid  in  a  definite  way  so  as  to  produce  a  rapid,  hot 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM  37 

fire,  a  flue  connecting  the  oven  with  the  kitchen 
chimney.  When  the  brick  walls  of  the  oven  were 
hot,  the  ashes  were  removed,  the  oven  floor  cleaned, 
and  the  pies,  bread  and  cake  introduced,  all  at  the 
same  time,  and  all  on  the  bare  floor.  The  oven  door 
was  then  closed  and  baking  began.  At  the  end  the 
objects  would  be  taken  out  by  the  aid  of  the  wooden 
shovel,  or  "peel." 

In  those  days  there  were  no  convenient  shops  at 
which  house-keeping  supplies,  including  the  com- 
monest dry  goods,  could  be  purchased.  Even  can- 
dles, the  only  means  of  lighting  the  house,  were  made 
at  home:  the  tallow  was  hoarded  and  tried  out, 
wicks  were  made  and  candles  fashioned  in  moulds  like 
the  ones  seen  here.  So,  too,  soap  had  to  be  made  at 
intervals — not  very  attractive  looking  soap  either — 
lard-like  and  messy,  for  ''hard  soap"  was  then  a 
new  invention  and  little  used.  Soft  soap  was  made 
by  "cutting"  kitchen  fats  with  a  strong  lye,  which 
the  housewife  dissolved  out  of  wood  ashes  in  a  great 
iron  pot,  hence  the  name  of  the  alkali  "potash." 
When  the  housewife  was  not  busy  supervising  such 
work  as  this,  or  cooking,  or  "tending"  children,  she 
visited  the  dairy,  or  looked  after  the  chickens,  geese 
and  ducks,  sewed  and  spun — for  in  those  days  her 
work  began  early  and  ended  never.  Her  spinning 
was  often  relaxation,  like  the  fancy-work  of  her  great- 
granddaughter,  and  she  prided  herself  on  the  thin- 
ness and  evenness  of  the  linen  thread  which  her  hard- 
tipped  fingers  twisted  from  the  great  hank  of  golden 
flax,  while  her  foot  pressed  the  treadle  automatically; 
or  on  the  perfect  strands  of  worsted  she  spun  as  she 
tapped  the  tall  wool-wheel  round.  Even  the  weav- 
ing of  the  linen  or  cloth  was  apt  to  be  done  under  the 


38  THE     DYCKMAN      HOUSE 

same  roof  by  some  skilful  member  of  the  family, 
whose  loom  was  at  other  times  stored  away  in  the 
garret.  Shoes,  too,  were  nearly  always  fashioned  in 
the  house,  either  by  home  talent  or  by  a  journeyman 
cobbler  who  appeared  at  regular  intervals  and  shod 
the  entire  family,  from  baby  to  grandfather.  Almost 
every  house  had  then  its  collection  of  lasts  and  its 
kit  of  tools.  In  those  days  work  of  this  kind  was 
not  despised  by  even  wealthy  people,  and  to  learn 
a  trade  was  almost  as  much  a  part  of  a  boy's  educa- 
tion as  to  learn  the  three  R's. 

In  all  old  houses,  lanterns  appear  to  us  surprisingly 
abundant  until  one  considers  how  useful  they  were 
inside  of  a  house  where  halls  were  unlighted,  and 
where  almost  every  room  not  in  use  was  dark — and 
outside  of  a  house  where  streets  were  dirty  and  so 
uneven  that  to  carry  a  lantern  became  almost  a 
means  of  self-preservation.  Near  one  of  the  present 
lanterns  is  a  rattle  which  was  used  by  a  watchman 
in  calling  for  help,  or  by  a  householder  when  scenting 
burglars.  For  in  those  days  there  was  no  police 
station  to  be  telephoned  to,  and  each  house  had  very 
largely  to  protect  itself.  Hence  a  loaded  firelock 
usually  appeared  in  some  corner  or  was  hung  above 
the  mantelpiece — and  not  uncommonly  a  sword  or 
two.  In  the  present  house  the  Revolutionary  mus- 
ket hanging  in  the  large  kitchen  belonged  to  Jacobus 
Dyckman,  already  mentioned,  and  bears  his  initials, 
J.D. 

The  interest  of  the  old  house  is  evidently  the 
greater  if  the  visitor  is  able  to  picture  it  in  olden 
times.  And  to  aid  his  vision  he  must  be  willing  to 
examine  the  details  of  structure  and  furnishings  and 
to  decide  how  and  why  they  were  used,  and  what 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM  39 

they  accompanied.  The  chairs  tell  us  of  a  straight- 
backed  generation,  when  life  was  far  more  earnest 
than  to-day,  when  emotions,  whether  laughter  or 
tears,  were  repressed,  when  children  were  kept  apart 
and  were  not  allowed  to  sit  down  in  their  elders' 
presence  without  formal  permission.  The  moulding 
or  chair-rail,  about  the  wall,  shows  that  chairs  were 
often  placed  close  to  the  plaster,  which  was  thus 
prudently  guarded  against  injury.  The  mantels, 
which,  by  the  way,  are  the  original  ones,  save  in  the 
dining-room,  are  tall,  narrow  and  formal,  simple  in 
ornament,  with  ledge  just  wide  enough  for  the  silver 
or  Sheffield  candlesticks  and  the  snuffers  correspond- 
ing, which  stood  between  them  on  a  tray,  or  the 
candelabra  with  crystal  pendants  of  slightly  later 
date,  which  in  the  present  parlor  were  lighted  splen- 
didly on  formal  occasions,  when  guests  talked  of  the 
duel  of  Burr  and  Hamilton,  or  of  the  Clermont 
puffmg  up  the  Hudson,  or  of  Decatur's  African 
pirates.  During  a  later  evening,  when  logs  crackled 
on  the  wide  hearth,  and  the  andirons,  tongs  and 
shovel  shone  like  gold,  Isaac  Michael  Dyckman  as 
a  boy  declaimed  before  his  admiring  uncles  Jeffer- 
son's speeches,  or  Cicero's  "Cataline,"  which  his 
tutor,  "old  Curtis  from  Dartmouth,"  had  just  taught 
him  in  the  upstairs  room.  The  little  window-panes 
speak  of  the  time  when  glass  was  more  easily  had 
in  small  *' lights" — when  panes  were  green,  uneven 
and  bubbly,  rusting  in  the  air  from  poor  chemical 
composition.  But  while  glass  was  rare,  iron  was 
conspicuous,  as  one  infers  from  the  door  hinges  and 
their  massive  construction,  for  part  of  the  hinge  ran 
strap-like  over  the  woodwork  before  carpenters 
learned  to  hide  the  metal  within  the  crease  of  the 


40  THE      DYCKMAN      HOUSE 

door.  Double  doors  are  characteristic  of  Dutch 
houses,  with  their  curious  hinges  and  latches  which 
enabled  the  housewife  to  keep  doors  open  but  at 
the  same  time  keep  out  of  her  halls  the  tracking 
feet  of  domestic  animals — and  children.  On  our 
front  door  is  the  knocker  from  a  Dyckman  house 
(Boscobel),  which  probably  all  older  members  of  the 
family  h^fve  used  from  1795. 

Substantial  furniture,  mainly  of  mahogany,  was  in 
use  in  those  days.  And  the  present  chairs,  tables, 
dressers  and  sideboard  are  good  examples  of  their 
class.  In  the  dining-room  the  Dyckman  sideboard 
is  still  in  its  place  of  honor,  bearing  family  Sheffield 
and  cut-glass  decanters.  The  excellent  eight-legged 
dining  table,  dating  from  1740,  belonged  to  a  con- 
nection of  the  family,  and  held  in  early  times  many 
heavy  trenchers  of  pewter,  blue-and-white  crockery, 
slim  Colonial  silver, — and  not  a  few  corpses,  for  in 
those  days  the  state  table  was  used  to  support  the 
coffin  at  family  funerals. 

The  bedrooms  suggest  many  by-gone  customs. 
The  four-post  bedsteads,  with  their  curtains  and 
valances,  recall  the  days  when  bedrooms  were 
usually  unheated  and  draughty,  and  when  the  use 
of  heavy  nightgowns  was  general  and  of  nightcaps, 
for  men,  women  and  children,  was  universal.  The 
Dyckman  warming-pan  by  the  fireplace,  when  filled 
with  hot  embers,  has  taken  the  chill  from  many  a 
cold  feather-bed  in  the  olden  times.  And  in  the 
winged  chair  Jemima  Dyckman  has  sat  near  a 
window,  yet  comfortably  out  of  the  draught,  while 
the  room  was  being  heated  by  a  Franklin,  such  as 
one  sees  now  in  the  fireplace.  This  kind  of  an  iron 
fireplace,  invented  late  in  the  eighteenth  century, 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM  4I 

brought  the  heat  more  economically  into  the  room 
and  was  the  progenitor  of  the  long  line  of  iron  stoves. 
Nearby  one  sees  the  family  cradle,  a  heavy  box-like 
affair,  in  which  generations  of  Dyckman  babies,  in- 
cluding Mrs.  Isaac  Michael  Dyckman,  were  thor- 
oughly rocked.  Some  of  them  grew  up  to  work 
with  patient  fingers  the  samplers  which  one  sees 
framed  on  the  walls  nearby. 

Two  rooms  have  been  set  aside  more  definitely 
for  museum  purposes.  Behind  the  dining-room,  in 
William  Dyckman's  bedroom,  one  may  examine  the 
Reginald  Pelham  Bolton  collection  of  objects  of 
local  interest.  These  have  been  recovered  by  Mr. 
Bolton  and  his  friends  from  Revolutionary  camp 
sites  and  from  ash  heaps  and  kitchen  middens  of  the 
early  houses  in  the  neighborhood.  The  Dyckman 
houses  yielded  many  of  the  important  objects  here 
shown,  including  fragments  of  leaded  glass  which 
one  hardly  associates  with  early  American  domestic 
architecture.  There  are  also  primitive  knives,  forks, 
spoons,  brooches,  fragments  of  Dutch  tiles,  coins, 
and  many  specimens  of  pottery  and  porcelain.  The 
latter  show,  by  the  way,  not  a  little  artistic  merit. 
It  is  from  an  examination  of  this  material  that  one 
sees  clearly  that  the  early  people  of  the  neighborhood 
were  fond  of  good  things  and  chose  them  intelli- 
gently. 

In  the  second  room,  immediately  behind  the  par- 
lor, which  belonged  to  Isaac  Dyckman,  one  sees 
numerous  family  heirlooms  of  all  kinds,  some  from 
the  Kingsbridge  Dyckmans  and  some  from  their 
cousin.  States  Morris  Dyckman,  who  lived  near 
Peekskill,  at  Kings  Ferry,  where  his  house,  Boscobel, 
still  exists.     Many  of  the  latter  objects  were  bought 


42 


THE      DYCKMAN      HOUSE 


by  States  Dyckman  during  his  years'  travels  abroad 
and  have  considerable  artistic  interest.  With  a  num- 
ber of  them  appear  original  bills,  e.  g.,  from  Josiah 
Wedgwood  for  the  specimens  of  blue-and-white 
cameo-ware  here  shown.  Probably  the  most  per- 
sonal relic  of  the  early  owners  of  the  house  is  the 
family  Bible  (Fig.  6),  which  occupies  a  place  in  the 
central  case.  Here  also  are  objects  of  jewelry,  books 
showing  early  bookplates,  silverware  and  porcelain. 
Mr.  Isaac  Dyckman's  desk  stands  nearby,  which 
contained  formerly  many  old  papers  and  sheepskin 
indentures  relating  to  the  present  property.  On 
the  walls  are  portraits,  early  letters,  maps  and  docu- 
ments showing  the  signatures  of  pioneers  in  the 
neighborhood. 


'et.'^l' 


FIG.    lO 

SUMMER    KITCHEN    IN    SOUTHERN    EXTENSION 
REAR    DOORWAY 


V 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

NOT  a  little  generous  help  has  been  given  us  in 
our  effort  to  restore  the  old  house.  The  first 
one  to  befriend  us  was  the  Commissioner  of 
Parks,  Hon.  Cabot  Ward,  seconded  by  Mr.  Carl  F. 
Pilat.  Next  to  them  should  be  mentioned  Mr.  Regi- 
nald Pelham  Bolton,  who  contributed  his  unique  collec- 
tion above  mentioned,  representing  years  of  practical 
research,  and  who  has  given  his  time  and  knowledge 
freely  in  restoring  for  us  the  Revolutionary  hut.  With 
Mr.  Bolton's  collection  is  shown  a  painting  contributed 
by  his  friend  and  co-worker,  M  r.  John  Ward  Dunsmore, 
which  reconstructs  very  interestingly  the  British  Camp 
(about  1780)  behind  the  Dyckman  house.  We  have 
already  mentioned  Mr.  Edmund  D.  Randolph's  gift  of 
the  century-old  boxwood  which  came  from  his  place, 
''  Brookwood,''  at  Mount  Saint  Vincent.  We  should 
now  mention  our  indebtedness  to  the  Misses  Cruger, 
of  Crugers,  who  are  the  descendants  of  Mr.  States 
Morris  Dyckman,  for  it  is  thanks  to  their  cordial 
co-operation  that  we  are  able  to  show  many  impor- 
tant objects  which  belonged  to  their  side  of  the 
family.  With  these  Dyckman  relics  they  presented 
us  an  ancient  trunk  filled  with  correspondence  and 
bills  of  Mr.  Dyckman,  including  about  one  thousand 
letters  and  documents  covering  the  period  from  1774 

43 


44  THE      DYCKMAN      HOUSE 

to  1806,  which  we  hope  some  day  to  edit  and  pubHsh. 
We  gratefully  acknowledge  the  gift  from  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Frederick  Allien  of  the  rare  eighteenth-century 
Dutch  tiles,  quite  similar  to  those  found  in  frag- 
ments in  the  Revolutionary  huts,  which  has  enabled 
us  to  restore  very  interestingly  the  dining-room 
fireplace. 

For  objects  exhibited  we  are  indebted  to  many 
donors  and  lenders,  including  Mrs.  Robert  W.  de  For- 
est, Mr.  William  H.  White,  Dr.  H.  C.  Mercer,  Mrs.  S. 
S.  Frishmuth,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  C.  O.  von  Kienbusch,  Mr. 
G.  M.  Edsall,  Mr.  Jacob  A.  Smith,  Mr.  R.  R.  Perkins, 
Mr.  George  A.  Plimpton,  Miss  E.  Stratford,  Captain 
and  Mrs.  W.  Bingham,  Mrs.  F.  W.  Franklin,  Mr. 
John  Harden,  Jr.,  the  Misses  Drennan,  Mr.  W.  H. 
Shelton,  Mrs.  H.  K.  Munroe,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Frederick  A.  de  Peyster.  The  excellent  dining-room 
chairs  belonged  to  the  father  of  Prof.  S,  F.  B.  Morse, 
of  telegraph  fame,  and  come  to  us  through  the  heirs 
of  Mr.  G.  Livingston  Morse,  whose  family  has  for 
generations  been  friends  of  the  Dyckmans.  We 
record,  also,  generous  loans  and  donations  from  mem- 
bers of  the  family  and  its  connections,  especially 
from  Mrs.  Mary  G.  Waters,  Mr.  James  H.  B.  Brown, 
Mrs.  Mary  D.  Crane,  Miss  Carrie  J.  Fulton,  Miss 
Mary  E.  Fulton,  Miss  Cora  S.  Requa,  Mr.  Rufus 
King,  Rev.  Henry  M.  Dyckman,  Miss  Helen  Dyck- 
man,  Mrs.  A.  V.  Youmans,  Mrs.  Archibald  McNeil, 
Mr.  R.  Massie  Nolting,  Miss  Alberta  M.  Welch,  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  William  Dean,  Miss  Harriet  Martine  Dean 
and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thomas  Gaudinier  Dean.  To  Miss 
Dorothy  Dean  we  are  indebted  for  generous  help 
in  arranging  the  collection,  also  to  Miss  Carrie  Fair- 
child,  Mr.  Ferdinand  Fairchild  and  Mr.  A.  H.  Wallace 


PARK     AND     MUSEUM 


45 


for  valuable  data  regarding  the  house  in  early  times, 
and  to  Mrs.  H.  Fairfield  Osborn  for  friendly  and 
hefpful  interest. 

Our  acknowledgments  would  be  seriously  incom- 
plete if  we  failed  to  record  the  kind  co-operation  of 
Miss  Clarisse  H.  Livingston  and  of  Mr.  J.  Romaine 
Brown,  who  exchanged  lots  with  the  donors  in  order 
to  enable  them  to  extend  the  Broadway  frontage  of 
the  Dyckman  Park.  We  note,  finally,  the  generous 
help  in  many  directions  of  Mr.  John  H.  Judge, 
former  owner  of  the  property,  to  whose  antiquarian 
interest,  and  that  of  his  late  wife,  Winifred  E.  Judge, 
the  preservation  of  the  old  house  was  long  due. 

Bashford  Dean, 

Alexander  McMillan  Welch, 

Honorary  Curators. 


PORTRAITS     OF    MR.     AND    MRS.     ISAAC    M.     DYCKMAN,     IN     WHOSE 

MEMORY   THE    DYCKMAN    HOUSE    PARK    AND   MUSEUM 

WAS    RESTORED   AND    PRESENTED   TO   THE    CITY 


SECOND  EDITION,  AUGUST,    I917 


GAYLAMOUNT 

PAMPHLET  BINDER 

Mana/aclurtd  by 

GAYLORO  BROS.  Inc. 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

Stockton,  Calif. 


M?.0'^?^^4 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  UBRARY 


